Wishes (13 page)

“I never looked at Nellie before,” the young man dancing with Terel said. “I guess I thought she was old, and maybe a little—well—fat, but she doesn’t look fat tonight. She moves like a goddess.”

Terel stopped dancing and left the man standing alone on the dance floor. She left the ballroom and went outside into the cool night air.

“Couldn’t bear to see how much people like Nellie?”

She jumped, then turned to see Jace standing in the shadows. “I have no idea what you mean, Mr. Montgomery. I am very pleased to see my sister so happy.”

“You’re not pleased to see anyone have more than you do.”

“I’ll not stand here and be insulted like this.” She started to go back to the ballroom, but Jace caught her arm.

“I know what you’re up to, you don’t fool me one bit. You’re a spoiled brat who’s had everything given to her all her life, and you think Nellie was put on this earth to give to you. Tonight you’re eaten alive with jealousy because you know that everyone in there
likes
Nellie, and you know that not one of them likes you.”

She jerked her arm from his grasp. “You should talk of liking! All you want from my old maid sister is our father’s money. I am merely trying to protect my sister from—” She stopped because Jace was laughing at her.

“Your father’s money,” he said with a sneer. “Before you go accusing people you should do a little research. I want Nellie because she’s everything a woman should be—everything that you’re not.” He leaned over Terel in a threatening way. “I’m warning you, you’d better leave Nellie alone. No more ink on her dresses, no more telling her she’s fat. You understand me? You keep making her cry and you’ll have to answer to me.”

At that he turned and walked back into the ballroom.

For a while Terel was too stunned to move. No one had ever talked to her like that before, and as she watched him go to Nellie and saw the two of them start dancing together Terel’s anger turned to something deeper. Research, he’d said, and he’d said it as though there was something she should know about him.

She went back to the ballroom and began to ask questions. It didn’t take many questions to find out that Jace Montgomery was one of the heirs to Warbrooke Shipping. Terel had no doubt that her father knew all about Warbrooke Shipping, and that that was why he’d hired Jace in the first place—and the man had accepted employment just to be near Nellie.

As Terel danced and smiled and chatted her mind worked. Under no circumstances on earth was she going to allow her fat, old-maid sister to catch one of the richest men in America. Was she, Terel, to marry some boy from Chandler and settle for a small house while Nellie lived in a mansion in New York? Or Paris? Or wherever she wanted to live? Was she supposed to spend her life reading about Nellie in the society pages of the newspaper? Maybe Nellie would feel sorry for her little sister’s poverty and send Terel her cast-off clothing. Was Nellie to have everything that Terel wanted in life just because she happened to meet Jace Montgomery first? If Terel had gone down first to greet the man that night he came to dinner, no doubt he’d be in love with her now.

She is taking everything that
should
have been mine, Terel thought. My own sister has betrayed me by taking everything I’ve ever wanted.

Well, she can’t have it, Terel thought. What is mine is mine, and she can’t take it away from me.

She looked at Nellie, standing near Jace, drinking a cup of punch and listening to Kane Taggert. The man had never so much as given the time of day to Terel.

“I’ll get her,” Terel whispered. “If I die trying, I’ll keep her from taking what’s mine.”

She turned away from Nellie and smiled at the young man near her. For all the world she seemed to be enjoying herself, but in her mind she was concocting a plan.

B
erni stepped out of the bathtub and once again looked at her list. She didn’t know how long she’d been in the Luxury room, but it was long enough to have chosen three things from the list.

After having given Nellie her three wishes, Berni entered the Luxury room and was given a long list of pleasures from which to choose. Since she’d spent the previous fourteen years partying, the first thing she chose from the list was “videos.”

Following golden lights through the fog, she entered an enormous room filled with shelves of videos of every movie ever made, plus every episode of every TV show. She had merely to look at the titles and they were chosen for her. After choosing a few hundred movies and old TV shows—everything Mary Tyler Moore had ever done and all the early “Bonanza” episodes—she followed the lights to a beautiful bedroom. The bed, covered with two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar sheets and pillowcases trimmed with handmade lace, was high off the floor and as soft as down (there were no “good for you” orthopedic mattresses in the Kitchen). She lay in bed for a very long while, eating endless bowls of buttery popcorn and watching one video after another. She didn’t even have to get out of bed to change the tapes, and when Mel Gibson was kissing someone the tape automatically slowed its speed.

After many, many videos she got out of bed and looked at her list. The next luxury she chose was “friendships with women.” On earth Berni had never had any women friends, but she had always heard and even believed that other women had solid, loving friendships with each other. So, for a long period of time, Berni had women friends. They went shopping together, giggled together, had lunch. Her friends gave her a birthday party, and they were always there to listen to her. When one of her friends broke up with her boyfriend, Berni stayed up all night with her.

But Berni grew tired of listening to other people, so she looked at her list again. This time she chose “bubble bath.” She sat in a large, soft bathtub full of hot water and lots of bubbles, read trashy novels, ate chocolate-covered cherries, and drank pink champagne. The water never grew cold; the bubbles never burst; the books were always good and the candy and champagne delicious.

Now, leaving the tub, she was looking at her list again. “New clothes” intrigued her. On earth she’d realized that the only clothes she really liked to wear were new ones. She would have liked to wear something only once, then discard it. “Kids who behave like those on TV” also interested her. There was also “winning prizes” and “being popular in high school” and “being appreciated.”

She was trying to decide when Pauline walked into the bathroom. As soon as Berni saw her the bathroom disappeared, and Berni was once again wearing the suit in which she’d been buried.

“You must come with me,” Pauline said sternly. “There is a problem in the Grayson household.”

Berni gave a grimace, then followed Pauline through the fog. She hadn’t thought of that fatty, Nellie, since she’d given her three wishes. “What’s she done? Wished her little sister into the grave?”

Pauline didn’t reply until they were in the Viewing Room; then she waved her hand and the fog cleared. Berni could see a cutaway of the Grayson house, rather like a doll house, with the upstairs and the downstairs showing at once. Terel was in the parlor, beautifully dressed, entertaining half a dozen equally well-dressed friends with tea and cakes. Charles was in the dining room with four men, looking at plans for a new freight office. The men were drinking whiskey and eating thick roast beef sandwiches. Nellie was running from the kitchen to the parlor to the dining room, trying to obey every demand her sister and father made.

Berni looked at the scene and frowned. “Can I help it if she didn’t take her wishes? It’s not my fault if she’s too dumb to—”

“Nellie made her wishes, she just wished for things for other people.”

“For other people? How can you make a wish for someone else?”

Pauline looked back at the house. “Nellie’s first wish was given to her sister. Terel said she wanted to be the most popular girl in town, so Nellie wished it for her. Of course, Nellie has had to cook and clean and take care of Terel’s wardrobe due to her little sister’s new popularity.”

Pauline turned to look at Berni. “Nellie’s second wish was that her father’s business would become more successful. It has, but, as you can see, Nellie has had even more work dumped on her shoulders.”

“They’re big enough to handle it,” Berni muttered. “What was her third wish?”

“It was an unusual wish, actually. She wished that her father and sister would get what they wanted from her. What they wanted was that Nellie not interfere with their comfort.”

“Their comfort?”

“Yes,” Pauline said. “Nellie’s third wish has made her virtually a slave to her father and sister. She can’t leave the house unless she’s sure it won’t interfere with the ease of her family. Look at her.” Pauline turned back to the screen. “She’s much worse off now than she was to begin with. At least she had free choice before you gave her the wishes.”

Berni watched Nellie scurrying from room to room, both her sister and her father hissing at her that she wasn’t moving quickly enough. In the kitchen, when Nellie wasn’t there, Berni could see the maid Anna sneaking in and stealing food to give to a disreputable-looking boyfriend who hid outside. When Nellie was in the kitchen she would call for Anna, but the maid would hide and giggle.

“Why didn’t she use her wishes for herself?” Berni asked. “She could have had anything.”

“You didn’t let her know she had three wishes, and you said her wishes were for what she
really wanted.
Nellie wants other people to be happy.”

Berni frowned. “What happened to the hunk?”

“He’s still around, and he’s in love with Nellie, but I’m afraid something is going to happen.”

“Such as?”

“Yesterday there was a ball, and Nellie looked lovely. It made Terel very jealous, and—”

“Jealous? Pretty little Terel was jealous of a blimp like Nellie?”

“There is more to a person than fat,” Pauline said. “Everyone in town likes Nellie, and they are happy to see her looking pretty and with a man like Mr. Montgomery. For all Terel’s prettiness, she isn’t nice like Nellie is.”

Berni looked away. On earth there had been times in her life when she’d been eaten alive with jealousy, and it hadn’t been the beauty queens who’d made her jealous but women like—well, like Nellie—who seemed to inspire love wherever they went.

“So what do I do now?” Berni asked softly. “Give her more wishes? Can I override the wishes she messed up?”

“No. What’s done is done. You have to figure out how to help Nellie. It’s up to you.”

A new emotion was creeping into Berni. It was guilt. She’d bragged to Pauline that she’d never hurt anyone in her life, at least not anyone who hadn’t done something rotten to her. But this Nellie hadn’t done anything to Berni, yet she’d managed to genuinely harm her.

“Can I see what’s gone on since I last saw Nellie?”

“Of course.” Pauline waved her hand, and the screen changed back to that evening when Jace Montgomery had first come to dinner.

Berni settled down on a banquette and watched. She saw Jace persuade Nellie to walk out with him, saw him help her up on the wall, saw the way Nellie’s face lit when Jace touched her.

“And she doesn’t even know he’s rich,” Berni murmured. She saw Terel when she heard the news of Nellie’s having spent the day with Jace. Berni winced when she heard and saw the way Charles and Terel berated Nellie for having spent a day out.

“They’re only worried because Nellie didn’t fix dinner for them,” Berni muttered.

“What?” Pauline asked.

“I said they don’t care about Nellie, only about themselves.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I—” Berni stopped, and her voice lowered. “Because I’ve done the same thing to my sister. All I had to do was tell her she was selfish and she’d do
anything
I wanted.” Berni looked back at the screen. “If only Nellie were thin…”

“How would that help?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure all her problems come from her being fat.”

“I’m not sure you’re right. Maybe when you see all of what’s happened, see when Nellie gives her wishes away and—”

She broke off because a woman ran into the room. “A ship’s gone down!”

“Oh, my,” Pauline said, smiling.

“What’s happened?” Berni asked.

The new woman, who wore ancient Egyptian dress, her black hair coated with oil, looked very excited. “A ship has gone down in 1742. All hands went down with it.”

Pauline stood. “I must go. This doesn’t happen very often, and—well, I don’t want to miss it. You stay and watch Nellie.”

“Wait a minute.” Berni caught Pauline’s arm. “Explain what’s going on.”

“The men went down with the ship. There are usually hundreds of them, and they’re young and healthy, and they’ve been at sea sometimes for a year or more. Alone. With no women.”

Berni was beginning to understand. “You mean that a few hundred—”

“Two hundred and thirty-six,” the Egyptian woman said.

“Two hundred and thirty-six lonely young sailors are coming to the Kitchen?”

“Exactly,” Pauline said.

“So when I get through watching Nellie I can—”

“There are no men allowed in the Kitchen, remember? Not
real
men, anyway. There are men in some of the rooms, but they’re actually just images. These men are
real.”

Berni thought of all the things she liked about men, the way they laughed and strutted, the way men could make you feel gorgeous, the way they could make you feel rotten and wonderful at the same time. “Real men,” Berni said dreamily.

“Yes.” Pauline smiled. “When a ship goes down or a mine explodes, or there’s some other natural disaster where a lot of men are killed, sometimes they’re sent here before being sent on to heaven or hell. They’re only here a few hours and then they’re gone. If you want to visit with them, you have to go
now.”

Berni looked back at the screen. Nellie was in the kitchen, her arm extended into the pantry, and that gorgeous Jace Montgomery was hungrily kissing her. Berni didn’t think Nellie looked too bad off. If only she weren’t so fat…

“Let’s go to the sailors,” Berni said.

“But what about Nellie?”

Berni waved her arm. “Get skinny, kid.” She looked back at Pauline. “That should do it. She gets skinny and she won’t have a problem in her life.”

“I’m not so sure. Maybe you should stay and—”

“Come on,” the Egyptian woman said. “The men will all be claimed by the time we get there.”

“Don’t worry,” Berni said to Pauline. “Nellie will be fine. She’ll be thin and beautiful, and all her problems will be solved. Now let’s go.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Pauline lifted her long skirts and started running after Berni and the Egyptian woman.

Jace was roused from sleep by someone pounding on the door of his hotel room. He struck a match, lit the lamp by the bed, and looked at his pocket watch. Three-thirty
A.M.
“All right, I’m coming,” he called, pulling on his trousers, buttoning them as he went to the door. He opened it to see a boy standing there, a thick kid of about ten or eleven.

“I got a telegram for you,” the boy said.

Rubbing his eyes sleepily, Jace took the telegram and looked at it.

YOUR FATHER GRAVELY ILL STOP COME HOME AT ONCE

Jace read it three times before his thoughts began to clear. “When’s the next train east?”

“There’s one at four, but it’s a freight train. Don’t take fancy passengers.”

Jace’s mind was racing. “Come here,” he told the boy. He went to the little desk in the room, sat down, and began to write a note to Nellie. He explained where he was going and why. He told her he’d return as soon as possible and asked her to explain to her father. At the bottom of the letter he told her he loved her.

Jace stood, sealed the letter in an envelope, addressed it to Nellie, then turned to the boy. “Do you know Miss Nellie Grayson?”

“Everybody knows Nellie.”

“I want you to give this to her. To her and no one else, you understand me?”

“Sure thing, mister.”

Jace pulled a quarter from his pocket. It was too much to give to the boy, but he wanted to insure his loyalty. “To Nellie and no one else.”

“I heard you the first time.”

“Go,” Jace said. “I have to pack.” The boy left, and Jace threw some clothes into a bag. He meant to make the four
A.M.
train. Even if he had to ride on top of a coal car, he was going to be on the first transportation out of Chandler. When he snapped his bag shut he paused. His father ill. His robust, aggressively healthy father ill. As he picked up his bag his hand trembled a bit.

There was no one downstairs at the hotel desk, so he quickly wrote a note saying he was checking out, then left money with the note. When that was done he began running. He made it to the train station as fast as his long legs could travel, and once there he paid an exorbitant amount for passage inside a freight car to Denver. He didn’t care what discomfort he had to endure. He was going to get to Maine and his father as fast as possible.